1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to aircraft instrumentation displays and more particularly to the enhancement in the display of a vertical terrain profile (VTP) on an avionics flight display for providing a real-time, dynamic display of bands to denote terrain altitude so as to prevent controlled flight into terrain (CFIT).
2. Description of the Related Art
Controlled flight into terrain continues to plague air travel as one of the leading causes of fatal aircraft crashes. Improved methods of alerting a flight crew of potential CFIT conditions have been developed as a result of technology advancements. These technology enhancements include accurate aircraft present position information, terrain data and suitable storage means, and computer processing resources. One such improved alerting system is referred to as a Ground Collision Avoidance System (GCAS). The GCAS system utilizes aircraft present position information, aircraft state information, and a digital terrain database to determine a flight path of an aircraft relative to the surrounding terrain. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,669, entitled “Minimum Safe Altitude Monitoring, Indication and Warning System”, issued to F. H. Brame.
Terrain awareness displays that use a format that provides a pilot or flight crew with complete situational awareness of potential terrain hazards to the aircraft are known. Positional information and terrain data in a database are used to display horizontal and vertical terrain information on a flight display. The information is formatted to provide an interface that provides the data conveniently, simply, and intuitively in a format that is easily assimilated and interpreted by a human operator. Such a terrain awareness display is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,936,552, entitled “Integrated Horizontal and Profile Terrain Display Format for Situational Awareness,” issued to Wichgers et al, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Shown in this reference is a vertical terrain profile for a terrain path in a line directly in front of the aircraft out to a selected distance.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,690,298, entitled “Enhanced Vertical Terrain Profile Display,” issued to Barber et al, discloses a VTP display that may be used to present terrain information in three colors. If the terrain is at or above the aircraft altitude in the side-on view or aircraft altitude in the end-on view, the side-on vertical terrain profile or the end-on vertical terrain profile will be depicted in red. If the terrain is within a predetermined distance such as 1000 feet below the aircraft, the side-on or end-on vertical terrain profile will be depicted in yellow. If the terrain is lower than 1000 feet below the aircraft, the terrain profiles will be depicted in brown. (Swathe lines on the compass or flight plan display will be displayed in the worst case color currently indicated on the VTP display. For example, if any red terrain is visible on the VTP display, the swathe lines will be in red.) As noted in that patent other colors may be used to make these display indications. U.S. Pat. No. 6,690,298 is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
U.S. Ser. No. 11/007,496, entitled, “Vertical Weather Profile Display Using Color Filled Blocks to Provide Weather Hazards”, filed concurrently herewith, by the applicant, S. Barber, and assigned to the present assignee, discloses a vertical weather profile display having a format comprising a side-on vertical weather profile including a plurality of color filled blocks representing weather hazards. This co-filed patent application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
U.S. Ser. No. 10/838,291, filed May 4, 2004, entitled, “Airborne Weather Radar System And Radar Display”, by applicants S. Paramore, D. Woodell and S. Barber, assigned to the present assignee discloses an iconal representation of a vertical weather profile indicating level of hazard for an onboard weather radar system. U.S. Ser. No. 10/838,291 is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
As will be disclosed below, the present invention provides increased terrain awareness by providing additional vertical terrain representations to provide indications of absolute terrain altitude, terrain alerting, weather radar and terrain alerting prediction.